There was once a shilling; it came out bright and shiny from
the mint, and sprang up, shouting, "Hurrah! Now I'm going
out into the wide world!" And into the wide world he went. The
child held it with soft, tender hands; the miser clutched it with
cold, clammy fingers; the old man turned it over many times
before letting it go; while the youth immediately passed it
along. The Shilling was of silver, with very little copper in it;
already it had been in the world for a whole year now-that is, in
the country where it was made. But one day it started to travel
to foreign lands; it was the last native coin in the purse that
the traveling gentleman had with him. He himself didn't
know he had this coin until it happened to come between his
fingers.

"Why, here's a shilling from home I still
have," he said. "It can make the trip with me."

And the Shilling rattled and jumped for joy as
it was put back into the purse. So here it lay among foreign
companions, who came and went, each making a place for the next
one. Only the Shilling from home always stayed in the purse,
which was a mark of distinction.

Several weeks passed, and the Shilling was far
out in the world, without knowing exactly where it was, although
it did hear that the other coins were French or Italian. One said
they were in a certain town, another reported that they had
reached another place, but the Shilling hadn't any idea
about it. Anyone who keeps his head in a bag can't see a
thing; and that was the case with the Shilling.

But as it lay there one day it noticed that the
purse was not completely shut, so it sneaked forward to the
opening to take a peek. It shouldn't have done that, but it
was full of curiosity, and people often have to pay for that. It
slipped out into the trouser pocket, and when the purse was taken
out that night the Shilling remained behind and was taken with
the clothes to the hall closet. There it dropped on the floor; no
one heard it, and no one saw it.

Next morning the clothes were returned to the
room; the gentleman put them on, and started on his journey
again, but the Shilling was left behind. It was found, required
to do service again, and was sent out with three other coins.

"It's an interesting thing to look about
you in the world," thought the Shilling, "and to get to know
different people and customs."

"What kind of coin is that?" said someone at
that very moment. "That's not a genuine coin! It's a
fake! It's no good!"

Yes, now began the real history of the Shilling,
as told by itself.

" 'False! No good!' Those words really hurt me,"
said the Shilling. "I knew I was made of good silver, had a good
ring and a genuine stamp on me. People were certainly mistaken;
they couldn't mean me! But they did mean me; I was the one
they called false and no good! 'I must get rid of that fellow in
the dark!' said the man I belonged to. So I was passed on at
night, and then again chided in broad daylight. 'False-no good!
We must hurry up and get rid of it!' "

And the Shilling trembled in its master's
fingers each time it was to be passed on as a native coin.

"What a wretched shilling I am! What good is my
silver to me, or my value, or my stamp, if all these things are
considered worthless? The world gives you only such value as it
chooses. It must be really dreadful to have a bad conscience, and
to sneak about in the path of evil, if I, who am quite innocent,
can feel so wretched just because I have my looks against me!

"Each time they brought me out I shuddered at
the thought of the eyes that would glare at me, because I knew I
would be rejected and flung back on the counter like a liar and a
fraud.

"One time I came into the hands of a poor old
woman, who received me as wages for a hard day's toil and
labor, and she couldn't get rid of me at all. Nobody would
accept me, and I was a real worry to the old woman.

" 'I shall certainly have to fool somebody with
this shilling,' she said, 'for I can't afford to keep a
false shilling. I'll pass him on to the rich baker;
he'll be able to stand the loss better than I can; but
still it is an injustice I will be doing.'

"What a weight I must be on that woman's
conscience, too," sighed the Shilling. "Am I really changed so
much in my old age? And the woman went to the rich baker, but he
knew the current shillings too well to accept me; I was thrown
back in the woman's face, and she got no bread for me. And
I felt grieved that I should be the cause of trouble to others-I,
who in my young days had been so proud of my value and the
soundness of my coinage. I was as melancholy as a poor shilling
can be whom no one will accept; but the woman took me home,
looked at me earnestly, with kindly, friendly eyes, and said,
'No, I won't deceive anyone with you. I'll bore a
hole through you, so everyone can see you're false. And
yet-a thought just occurs to me-perhaps you are a lucky shilling;
yes, I believe you are; I have such a strong feeling about it!
I'll make a hole through the coin, pass a string through
it, and then give it to the neighbor's little child to hang
around her neck as a good-luck shilling.'

"And she drilled a hole right through me. It
certainly isn't very pleasant to have a hole bored through
you, but you can stand many things when you know the intentions
are good. A thread was passed through the hole, and I was hung
around the child's neck like a kind of medal. The child
smiled at me and kissed me, and all that night I slept on its
warm, innocent breast.

"Next morning the child's mother took me
up and looked at me and had another idea about me-I could feel
that immediately. She brought out a pair of scissors and cut the
string.

" 'A lucky shilling!' she cried. 'Well,
we'll see about that!'

"Then she soaked me in vinegar, until I turned
quite green, puttied up the hole, rubbed me a little, and that
evening took me to the lottery collector, to buy a lottery ticket
that would make her fortune.

'How utterly unhappy I felt! There was a
stinging inside me as if I were going to break in half. I knew
that I should be called false and thrown away, and before a crowd
of other coins, too, who lay there proud of their inscriptions
and faces. But I escaped that time, for there were many people in
the collector's office-he was very busy, so I rattled into
the box with the other coins. I don't know if my ticket won
anything or not, but I do know that the very next morning I was
recognized as a bad coin and sent out to deceive again and again.
That is a very trying thing to endure when you have a good
character, and this I cannot deny that I have.

"For years and days I wandered this way from
house to house, from hand to hand, always rebuked, always
unwelcome; nobody believed me, and finally I lost confidence in
the world and myself; those were hard times. One day a traveler
arrived, and naturally I was passed on to him, and he was
courteous enough to accept me as good. But when he tried to pass
me on again, I heard once more the cry, 'That coin's no
good! It's false!' "

" 'I accepted it as genuine,' said the man, and
looked closely at me. Then he smiled all over his face; never
before had a face looked like that after a close examination of
me. 'Why, what's this?' he said. 'That's a coin from
my own country, a good honest shilling from home, that someone
has bored a hole through and called false. Now, that's a
strange coincidence. I'll just keep it and take it home
with me.'

"A thrilling glow of joy shot through me when I
heard him call me a honest shilling; now I would go home, where
each and everyone would know me and realize that I was of good
silver and bore a genuine stamp. I felt like throwing out sparks
of happiness, but after all it isn't my nature to throw out
sparks; that's something for steel to do, not silver.

"I was wrapped up in a clean white piece of
paper, so that I wouldn't be mixed up with the other coins
and be lost; and only on special occasions when people from my
own country got together was I shown around, and they said nice
things about me. They thought I was interesting-and it's
surprising how interesting you can be without saying a single
word.

"So at last I was home again. All my troubles
were over, and I was happy again, for I was made of good silver
and had the genuine stamp. I had no more misery to endure, even
though a hole had been bored through me as if I were false; that
doesn't matter if you're not really false. Just wait
for the end, and everything will come out all right. That is my
firm belief," said the Shilling.